“One of the dancers was walking around the outside of the arena and heard some woman arguing with security, telling them she was your mom. Everybody assumed it was a fan trying to get backstage. When word got to your sister, she thought she should check it out because they were talking about arresting the woman if she didn’t leave. She knew Heath would be ticked if there was any more bad press, so she thought confronting the lady herself would end it without having to call the cops. Next thing I know, Faith’s running around back here, looking for Dean like there was some sort of emergency. I guess she had him get your mom a backstage pass.”
Sawyer stopped. He couldn’t go into his dressing room. Not with that woman in there. How could Faith have let her back here? He shook his head. His sister had always held out hope their mom would come back. He’d thought she’d finally let that go when Gretchen didn’t show up at their father’s funeral. Sawyer had assumed he would never see her again. How he wished he had been right.
“Tell my sister to come out here.”
Hunter exhaled loudly and went in without him. Faith came out a few seconds later.
“Why aren’t you coming in?”
“Why did you let her back here?”
Faith’s brow furrowed. “Because she’s our mother.”
“How can you be sure if that’s really her? And even if she is our mother, why in the world did you think I would want to see or talk to her?”
Faith gave her brother a hug. “I know this has to be overwhelming.”
He pushed Faith away. “It’s not overwhelming. It’s ridiculous. She left and now that I’m famous, she reappears, looking to talk to me. What a coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”
“She doesn’t want anything from you. We can’t ignore her.”
“Why not? She ignored us for the last twenty-plus years!”
“Oh, my, it’s like this place went into lockdown. What’s going on?” Harriet came around the corner with her backstage pass swinging around her neck. “I had to go through three checkpoints. It wasn’t like that the last time.”
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Faith said, throwing her arms around Harriet.
“I told Sawyer I would be here after I finished decorating the bus like we talked about.” Harriet turned to Sawyer. “I hope your fiancée will be very pleased.”
Given the insanity of the day, Sawyer had forgotten all about the big pre–Valentine’s Day surprise. Between the argument they’d had this morning and his mother’s arrival, he wasn’t sure Piper even wanted to date him anymore.
“You’re never going to believe who’s here,” Faith said, acting like it was some gift that their mother had dared to show her face.
“Did you know she’s the one who disrupted the signing at Thornberry’s today?” he asked his sister before Harriet could answer. “She waited in line to see Piper and then proceeded to verbally attack her. I want nothing to do with her.”
“Who are we talking about?”
As if on cue, Gretchen pulled open the door and stuck her head out. “Harriet Windsor, as I live and breathe.”
It took a moment for Harriet to recognize her. “Gretchen? Oh my goodness, is that you?”
“I keep telling all these bodyguards it’s me, but none of them want to listen.” She stepped into the hall and Harriet wrapped her in an embrace like she really was a long-lost friend. But real friends didn’t disappear off the face of the earth for twenty years. “My boy has gotten so popular they won’t let anyone near him without a background check and a blood test.”
He didn’t appreciate the way she treated this whole thing like some sort of joke.
“I can’t do this,” Sawyer said. He took off in the direction of Piper’s dressing room. He had to make sure she was okay.
Mitch and another bodyguard stood outside her room. He knocked on the door before pushing it open. Heath was right there, blocking him from entering.
“Can I come in please?”
“Is that woman really your mother?”
“Apparently,” Sawyer said with a huff. “Can I please see Piper?”